Marketing Hip-Hop Online

As seen on Craigslist (NYC):

HIP HOP WEBSITE/BLOG MANGR NEEDED (Midtown)

Good Day,

Popular Website That Has a strong presence in the hip hop community is looking for someone to come in & help establish the corporate aspect of things to the website.

We I say help establish corporate aspect, I mean get clients for advertising on the site, do follow ups, close the deals etc.. Help form structure for the organization,

We had to strike while the iron is hot. And now is the time. Our alexa/quantcast numbers are strong. And now it’s time to profit. It’s A Hip Hop Community website with over 50, 000 members.

This is a commission based job.

Please Just don’t send resumes. Please Tell us something unique and different about you. And why you’d be perfect for this opportunity?
Also please send your myspace,facebook pages etc.. you must be knowledgeable of social networks as well

**PLEASE INCLUDE EVERYTHING, WE ASKED, IF YOU CAN’T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOT FOR YOU**

Hmm.

Well, it’s a badly written ad, so a bad first impression. I’m not sure that the kind of talent they need will be willing to come work for what appears to be an amateurish site, and for “commission only” on top of that.

Several issues.

But I understand, start-ups and such, no capital to invest in talent, etc. Ok, but…

You represent a blog, an online PUBLICATION! I’m sorry to be so blunt, but the writing in this posting is horrendous! Is anyone who is remotely talented or ambitious enough to want to try a commission-only sales job, taking you seriously, based on that posting?

Advice: Look, even if someone does respond, in order to attract top talent, your company must represent itself better. If this post in any way represents the company, or the content, would anyone looking think you had a product worth trying to sell ads for? Maybe you do, I can’t fully call it unless I know the site we’re talking about, but if you want someone who can attract and close deals, function competently in the social media space, all of this for commission, good luck. It sounds like you are underestimating what it means to succeed in such a saturated and competitive online media world. If major media entities can’t get it right, what makes you think you’ll find a savior for commission-only, who will only be able to work on social media endeavors while selling and closing deals?

It’s clear that you do need some corporate up in there, but I just seriously wonder what kind of talent you will attract with that ad.

I love a hip-hop underdog, but guys, your posting just screams “we have no money, and maybe a crappy product.” Which again, may not be the case. 50,000 members is not too shabby a number! But remember, presentation, representation of your brand, at all times, even when posting anonymously, is a Commandment. And to attract someone who might be respectable enough to make things happen for you, you could stand to look a little more respectable yourselves.

But that’s ok. You admit you need some help. That’s cool. But then being a little salty with the “follow directions” comment, really isn’t necessary. Anyone worthwhile who was to come in and bring a little “corporate” up in that piece, really shouldn’t be taking directions from you in the first place.

I mean correct me if I am wrong. You’re asking for a business development, sales, social media maven, to help establish the corporate structure you are lacking, to do it for free commission, and to be ready to only follow your direction.

Personally, I’d require base salary or project based-compensation, as well as creative control, to perform any of the tasks you are asking for, as I am a professional who gets paid to do such things. So I’ll pass on replying to this opportunity, but I wish nothing but the best to you and your endeavors, and anyone who does join your movement.

Your organization could probably benefit highly from a successful corporate mangr like myself, but as it stands, since I totally didn’t follow directions, this opportunity is clearly not for me.

After receiving this unsolicited tweet:

Bigstevegee Bang it out my dude!! Black Rob – Jumpin’ Like Whoa http://www.zshare.net/audio…

and noticing that Bigstevegee’s last 20 tweets were pretty much the same thing to 20 different people, I tweeted:

Manny Faces Dear Music Promoters: Spam is for email accounts, not Twitter. Spam me there. Here, it’s like jumping into a conversation. Rude.

I got a couple of replies, giving me e-dap:

djdimepiece @MannyFaces LOL, I soooooo concur! PLEASE RETWEET!
shawtyslim @MannyFaces amen to that… Twitter is like the “last place we got left”. If this turns into myspace, I’m giving up
WILLIAMGONE @MannyFaces good point! stop it vlad!!!

(LOL @ that last one). So, I’m not alone.

I wasn’t targeting Vlad obviously, but @Bigstevegee, a DJ/mash-upper/remixer apparantly down with AV8 records, the “are-they-still-around?” label that releases white-labelish singles, remixes, extended party breaks and such.

Now, a “reply” normally implies that you are “replying” to something I wrote in general, or wrote directed at you. Big Steve Gee apparently disagrees, and decided to t-spam not only me, but a slew of tweeple with variations of the same message (see image below).

Bigstevegee, we may even have communicated in the past, and my apologies if I don’t recall you off-hand. But I too am a remixer/producer cat (www.mannyfaces.com). I think most would say I’m pretty nice, skills and marketing-wise, and as such, I have had nearly 2,000,000 downloads of my remixes, got thousands of MySpace friends and email list recipients, and most importantly to this issue, more than 7x the amount of followers on Twitter than you do. I occasionally tweet links to my remixes and blog posts, etc., but I make SURE I tweet other interesting, relevant, irreverant, humorous and useful stuff at least 9 times out of ten. It is what has make me #5 in my region with a 99.4 score (source: TwitterGrader.com). So here’s some advice on how it works:

[More]

Despite the fact that I am actually my own favorite white boy, my e-friend B-Double presents a great post detailing the importance of, and methods used to obtain favorable Digg.com traffic for your hip-hop related content.

Here’s an excerpt from the original post:

What these and other successful hip-hop related posts tell you is that your best bet is to stick to humor, amazing video or explaining events, styles, lingo, etc in hip-hop.  Most Digg users go onto the site for entertainment purposes.  Its not that your 5-part J Dilla tribute isn’t important, Digg may just be the wrong place to post it.

[YourFavoriteWhiteBoy.com]

[As seen on Craigslist]

Aspiring R&B singer/rapper needs an entourage to help with entrances and ‘causing a scene’

- Experience in dance a plus
- Male and female accepted
- Attire will be provided
- Aspiring singers and actors need not apply (not looking for competition)
- Positive outlook a MUST
- Thirst for danger also a major plus
- Must work Nights and Weekends

This is not your normal job! applicants must be SERIOUS about being part of something bigger than themself (my posse)!

The light of heart need not apply!

Please include qualifications and picture imbedded in the e-mail ATTACHMENTS WILL NOT BE OPENED!

* Location: (NYC)
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: $50

I don’t know about you, but my thirst for danger is worth at least $75. Then again, attire is included. (Luckily I don’t sing.)

As twitterer and ad-discoverer @cyberprvideo so eloquently stated, “Is this what hip hop/r&b have come to??”

Let’s play devil’s advocate. What could you hope to accomplish here? You invite a bunch of strangers, with the implication that you want to “cause a scene” upon entering an establishment. They need to thirst for danger, AND know how to dance… Could this mean you want this entourage to:

• A) Break out into a choreographed dance fight as soon as you enter the club, a la West Side Story, or Beat It?
• B) Immediately punch the first people they see?
• C) Grope and fondle the “artist” throughout the night in an attempt to prove how irresistible he/she is?
• D) Break out into a choreographed game of Duck, Duck, Grey, Goose?

Ah, but where does the thirst for danger come in? Must be closer to ‘B’.

If you have to pay people to act like you are worth entouraging, you might want to reconsider things.

And what exactly, would “qualify” someone to do this sort of thing? Would someone have to….

Oh, forget the commentary, this is just plain silly.

Advice? Well, probably wise if you actually become worthy of a real group of friends/fans/groupies who will a) do this for free, b) be sincere, c) won’t do anything that will go TOO far, for fear of hurting your image.

The … ingenuity of the … request… is… interesting. But it sounds like a very unplanned plan that could easily backfire, or worse yet, succeed, until exposed, and then implode.